The Challenge

Fuller’s needed to redesign a complex pub microsite ecosystem — 207 centrally-managed sites (381 total) spanning distinct sub-brand journeys (food-led, hotel-attached, events/weddings, transport-hub, craft beer) — via a two-phase tender that explicitly did not guarantee the design phase to whoever won research.

The Outcome

Delivered evidence backing a full IA and concept redesign, converting a non-guaranteed Phase 1 research engagement into a retained Phase 2 design partnership. The hotel booking journey — identified as a key weak point in the original 2020 research — showed sustained, compounding improvement over the following years: Fuller’s HY results (26 weeks to 24 Sept 2022) reported website direct bookings up 20% against H1 2020, rising to +46% year-on-year by FY2023 (April 2023). Umi Digital’s continued involvement with Fuller’s throughout this period (ongoing brand adaptations for new properties) supports a direct line from the original research and IA work to these results, rather than an unrelated intervening redesign.

The Approach

Led an evidence-first UX research phase combining behavioural analytics (heatmaps, scroll maps, session recordings), competitor benchmarking (including Greene King Pubs and direct comparators), and qualitative interviews mapped against real customer journeys (Food & Drink, Hotel, Events). Logged 665 discrete research observations, synthesised into 89 test ideas scored against a weighted prioritisation model (traffic, revenue impact, effort, behavioural evidence — a GDD-style approach).